In an earlier post I talked about some Excel Sort Shortcuts using the Right-Click or Context Menu.
Here I’ll talk about some really fast Sort shortcuts using the Alt key, or “keyboard accelerators” or “key tips.” As a bonus, I’ll reveal some fast ones using the Menu Key as well.
Below is a brief video showing you how fast these shortcuts are:
Excel’s Data tab has lots of great tools, like Filtering, Sorting, and the ability to Refresh a pivot table (among others).
So how can you access it quickly, with keyboard shortcuts? Simple: by typing Alt-A, and then the keyboard accelerator letter for your selection. (If you’re not familiar with Excel’s Alt shortcuts, you type the letters in succession, not all at once).
But if you’re lazy like me, you avoid moving your right hand onto the keyboard when possible (because you like it on the mouse). This is a central principle of my whole approach to Excel shortcuts. I will never become a keyboard-only user, because the mouse is quite often just as fast as the keyboard. But I digress…
Once you’ve typed Alt-A, which keyboard shortcuts can you complete using only your left hand? See the options circled in red below:
Sorting is an essential task in Excel, and one that you might perform often, so it makes sense to become efficient at the basics.
